My webhost says it is creating a lot of “sleeper” processes on the database server, and using up a lot of the processor resources. My account was even suspended until I fixed it.

SO – I am going to be rewriting the whole thing, pretty much from scratch now, and it will only be loosely based on Dan’s version…

Currently, the code will run through the database of posts, and find those that have shortened URLs stored for them, run a twitter search, and return/parse/store/display the resulting tweetbacks. And it does this every 5 minutes.

However, that sucks up a lot of processing power to do that, especially if you have a big blog, popular blog, or both. The Answer: A Rewrite. This one is going to run a single Twitter search for every shortened url in the database, return ALL the results once, and parse them out, store them in the database, and associate them to their respective parent posts.

So, there’s the update for why this hasn’t been released yet.

I’m also working on trying to get the retro-active TweetThis buttons working on old posts – but something isn’t working right – either it’s the original code that isn’t comparing what’s in the database to the conditional statement correctly (if this.url = “”, then make new ones), or something. It’s going to take some more testing on my own test database, since my webhost is getting antsy with all the processes I’m using.

I’ll keep everyone updated as it moves along. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: api, code, database, MySQL, Ping.fm, plugin, Programming, tweetback, tweetbacks, TweetSuite, webhost, WordPress

However, with the downturn in the economy (and my slightly-better-than-arbitrary prediction of a <7,000 point stock market by the end of the month…Spring Break at the latest), I figure it’s time to start taking into consideration other possible sources of income. Not for fear of losing my job, but rather to help get my bills in check Credit Cards, primarily, who have decided it is time to raise the minimum payment – which is the only thing enabling me to devote a greater portion of my money to one in order to pay it off, while keeping the others at par until it is their turn.

I only bring it up here, because selling coding services on a site dedicated to funny t-shirts and custom graphics doesn’t make a whole lot of sense…not logically, and not for SEO. So this seems like the most likely place such a service would be offered.

Taking into account everything that’s been going on in the news for the last few months, I have been considering offering a side-job service during weekend, and possibly evening hours, for creating RTML solutions for yahoo stores that don’t have the “luxury” of hiring an IT person capable of deducing how the big-shots do what they do, in the limited environment that Yahoo provides/imposes.

So, with that in mind, would anyone be interested in such a service? Any takers? Feel free to inquire about what kinds of scripts I can write – as well as posing suggestions for something you might like to see done – and we’ll go from there.

Technorati Tags: code, developer, economy, RTML, rtml solution, server, setup, site, solutions, website, yahoo, Zen Cart

Of course, with any new technology I try to build or incorporate into something bigger, I first test it on my own site, the-spot.net, and then implement it elsewhere as intended.

Most of the work I had learned by reading “Professional AJAX” beforehand, and doing the XML-Http-Requests manually, and creating my own classes and such. But this time around, it was much simpler.

We implemented the Lightbox image overlay script, and found that it made use of the Prototype.js framework (for handling the asynchronous JavaScript calls) and Script.aculo.us for handling the animation of the overlaid image.

So I took it one step further, and decided to read up on the various ways to make use of these frameworks, and ended up calling all the various modules on the My Spot page of the-spot.net, it does create a problem for SEO-driven development.

If you’re looking for automatically updating content on a page that doesn’t have to change for it to happen, then you cause this code (once you include the prototype.js script in your page):

new Ajax.PeriodicalUpdater(‘products’, ‘/some_url’,
{
method: ‘get’,
insertion: Insertion.Top,
frequency: 1,
decay: 2
});

But while this code does the job to get your content updated automatically, at the given frequency in seconds (multiplied by the decay per each cycle containing unchanged content), the Google crawlers aren’t going to find it – because all that is on your page is this:

<div id=”products”></div>

…and that does not have any content in it for the Google crawlers and other search engine bots to read.

I’m still grappling with how to get content into that box for the crawlers to read, but not my users – and since my site is php-driven, I should be able to include the normal template includes enclosed in <noscript> tags:

<noscript>
<!-- INCLUDE “modules/module.html” -->
</noscript>

…in order for my pages to show content for the crawlers, but not my visitors – unless they have JavaScript turned off, of course. I’ll give it a shot though, and post more information later. I have to go back and re-edit my pages and templates to make sure they are still compliant with the original template architecture.

Technorati Tags: ajax, asynchronous javascript, code, decay, development, div, framework, frameworks, frequency, google, image overlay, insertion, JavaScript, Lightbox, noscript, PeriodicalUpdater, prototype, SEO-driven, technology, url, XHTML, xml http requests

The original code would hit the main database to grab the newest posts on the forums…after it sorted all 77000 posts by date, and then grabbed the top 15-20 of them and their data. Since the entire site runs off of that one database, you can imagine how that would slow down everything when even just 10 people hit the site every 15 minutes.

So I am going to attempt my first distributed database scenario. With this new code, when you make a post, it stores it to the main database as well as some of the data to a second database on another server I have. This setup will send only the relevant data for producing the RSS feed, and when the RSS page executes, it will run on that data.

I’ll give more technical details about this code in another post for those that are interested. This is just to let everyone know that there is something being worked on for the site, even though you don’t see a whole lot being done up front.

Technorati Tags: code, database server, distributed database, feed, post, relevant data, RSS, setup, site, technical details, time

- It no longer redirects you to the forum index if there are no new posts since you last visit…instead it lets you stay on the MySpot page, so you can go about you business checking the other features of the site.
- At the top of the window, where it says “the-spot.net :: MySpot” it now says “MySpot (35)” or some other number in parenthesis to denote how many new topics have been posted to since you last checked the MySpot page. I tried to incorporate it into the header, but it did not work because I was not willing to have every page load run a search for new posts. That feature will come later with some ajax that I am going to integrate into the site…so that it loads stuff in the background, not affecting your ability to load the page.
- I put the Jumpbox (which you can select your forum, and click go, from a drop down menu) and put it inside the New Posts table, to consolidate that part of the site. It didn’t deserve its own box.
- I fixed the mini-calendar on the MySpot page to show the correct date, once the time reaches past 6pm. It was running the regular GMT – 0 intead of the GMT-6 like we’re in, for the most part. I haven’t figured out how to fix the big calendar though…still looking into that.

Also, a couple days ago, I made some other changes…
- I brought back the Photobook stream at the bottom of the MySpot page. I’m debating whether or not to just go with the flickr setup or run both, or just do the Photobook. flickr is easier to use, but Photobook is ours.
- I moved the tsn Network table to the other side, in preparation for the return of the User Pic on the MySpot page on the left column.
- I’m also looking into a personalized page for people to use…where they would see their private messages, draft-posts, watched topics, their online buddies, new posts, photostream, and other things.

the future plans are all contingent on what I can think of and figure out the code for. These improvements that have already happened were simply because I’ve either already had the code, and just plugged it in, or I had a burst of thought and figured out the cause of the problem so I could fix it.

Sorry I don’t update this thing much…there hasn’t been a whole lot of stuff going on behind the scenes of tsn – I’ve been looking into other services and websites and technologies for the past 7 months.

Technorati Tags: ajax, code, flickr, forum, forum index, GMT, myspot, network, Photobook, private messages, setup, tsn, tweaking

So check the pizzy for updates if the forums aren’t working. If, in the meantime, the server goes down for some reason, and you can’t get to thepizzy or tsn, then go to http://tsnblog.blogspot.com to fing out why.

Technorati Tags: beta, code, conversions, database, forums, pizzy, server, site, sql, sql code, tsn, tsnV, tsnX, update

I spent all night working on it, and then another 3 hours today already, and am going to take a break from it. But once the database conversion is finished, and I revisit the bugs in the code, I’ll load the database, and start working on the site design.

The theme that I’m going to be working off of is just going to be a re-coded subSilver theme. If you want to use the theme as I build it, to be one of the first to experience the tsnX feel, then feel free to do so. However, the theme is going to be in the alpha phase, which will guarantee nothing as far as it’s ability to function is concerned. So if I’m working on something, and the theme breaks, and it’s not something that I can fix immediately, then you will most likely be SOL until I get it fixed, as far as using the site is concerned.

For this purpose if you wish to create a separate user on the site and use the settings for it to work with everything beta, then that will be acceptable. Just name your user account _beta so that you can distinguish which is which, and we’ll still know who you are.

Technorati Tags: account, alpha, alpha phase, beta, code, database, database conversion, database structure, design, forums, site, subSilver, tsnV, tsnX, update, user, user accounts